OTTAWA — The best book is the one we pick up thinking we won’t read it, but after a quick look we emerge days later thinking, “Wow. I didn’t know that.”

This one took me along for the best ride I’ve had through my home territory, from Ottawa through Northern Ontario to Sault Ste. Marie. It made stops along the way to give a depth of history to sights I’ve seen all of my 75 years of life, and reminded me that time-wise I’d seen only the now.

It corrected much wrong information I had picked up from anecdotal histories, and proved once again that truth is often much more rip-roaring fun than fiction.

The title is Pogamasing. The story of a northern lake. The author is Andy Thomson, a retired teacher whose personal geographic history is similar to my own. I knew “Pog” because as a Sudbury Star reporter in the late 1950s it was part of the ground I covered — a wide swath from the Sault to North Bay, including Manitoulin Island, where I grew up.

As kids we were allowed amazing free range. We were taught to swim and were trusted with boats when we were about 10. We wandered through the valleys of the LaCloche Range along the North Shore of Lake Huron. We often found traces of earlier habitation, including stone chimneys and foundations, and couldn’t tell if they were from the fur trade, lumbering, or a regular stop point for Voyageurs.

My early memories include standing on the hill in front of our home, watching steam tugs drag unbelievably huge rafts of logs eastward through the North Channel. The LaCloche Range is mainly rocky and not heavily forested. Where was the forest that could provide so many logs?

From the west, was the answer.

Wrong. From the north, is the answer provided by teacher/author Thomson. They were likely cut somewhere near his beloved Pogamasing Lake, about 100 kilometres north of Sudbury, and floated down the Spanish River to its mouth about 50 kilometres west of my home.

Every year of my young life included many trips to Espanola, about 50 kilometres to the north, and I always wondered why there was such a Spanish name, and a river named the Spanish, in an area that seemed to have no Spanish history.

Now I know the town was named after a prominent Anishnabe (original people) family. Thomson uncovered a likely explanation for the Spanish connection. Centuries ago Ojibwa traders returned from a trading quest to the southern part of the continent with a woman who spoke Spanish. She was either a captive or a slave. She eventually married into the band and taught her children to speak Spanish.

Enter the coureur du bois. They spoke French but recognized Spanish, and began to refer to the area as Spanish. The Spanish-speaking family became known by the name Espagnol, and became prominent leaders.

Thomson’s incredible research turned up a letter from a late-1800s surveyor suggesting somebody should study the navigating skills of the Anishnabe. Measurement was by an actual chain 66 feet long, and 66 of them made a mile. When a crew started a day’s straight-line measurement, their camp was packed and sent ahead. With tents, food and stoves, the pack boss couldn’t travel in a straight line, yet without even a compass, would be waiting at, or very near, the next campsite.

He told of having to move a camp boss’s tent because he was right on the spot a survey marker had to be placed.

As times changed and logging became the major industry, some lumber barons wouldn’t allow guns. Horses were the main source of power and when they were injured or worked out, they had to be put down. The animal would be taken far from the camp and killed with dynamite. Forest animals would clean up the remains.

One blast boss knew more about dynamite than horses. He wired a horse and lit the fuse, but didn’t tie the animal. It wandered back to the camp. The recorder of that story said there was nobody hurt, but the blast man had a helluva mess to clean up.

The author spent his summers on Pog, and does a great job of sharing his experiences. He makes it must reading for those lucky enough to be cottagers.

It’s a colourful hardcover book with plenty of maps and photos. It’s available ($30) online by entering the title into a search engine.

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